We received an offer on our property (property without title deeds but AX number) which we duly accepted - hooray!!. However within an hour of acceptance the buyers withdraw as their lawyers established that the developer has a mortgage on the land and a memo issued for non payment of taxes (neither of which we were aware of at the time of our purchase). Our contract stated the property was "free from impediments". The developer is adamant that there are no loans and the taxes as paid. We have instructed our lawyer to carry out the necessary checks but as this has been a while and we haven't received any answers we are concerned that the impediments were already there when we purchased and they are dragging their heels. Had we known all of this we certainly wouldn't have bought the property.
Does anyone know roughly how long searches take? We have asked for dates as to when the mortgage etc was placed on land and who the lender is etc.
We bought the property as a resale - cash buy, but are stuck with something we can't sell.

A Land Registry search takes a few days - a week at most and it will show details of all the charges that have been lodged against the property, including their dates, their values and who placed the charge. This will include your contract of sale as it also creates a charge.

These charges take priority according to the date they were lodged. So if your contract was lodged before a mortgage (say) that mortgage will not affect you - and if your buyers uses an assignment contract, it will not affect them either.

When you say that the property was "free from impediments" - can you give me the precise working of the clause.

A Land Registry search takes a few days - a week at most and it will show details of all the charges that have been lodged against the property, including their dates, their values and who placed the charge. This will include your contract of sale as it also creates a charge.

These charges take priority according to the date they were lodged. So if your contract was lodged before a mortgage (say) that mortgage will not affect you - and if your buyers uses an assignment contract, it will not affect them either.

When you say that the property was "free from impediments" - can you give me the precise working of the clause.

Regards,

Thanks Nigel,

It has been almost 3 weeks since we instructed our lawyer to carry out the searches - granted there has been some correspondence from the lawyer to the developer but not much in the way of answers.

The precise wording of the clause is as follows: The property is free of any impediments and the present agreement may be lodged with the Lands Registry Office.

Our contract was signed in November 2011 and stamped Currator Stamp Duty (guess that means we paid the stamp duty)

I am aware of assignment contracts, and I did put this to our lawyer and the estate agents we have used. The agents have said that the memo is the biggest problem. One estate agent has withdrawn our property from the market (they didn't inform us prior to that, they also carried out their own checks with the Land Registry but won't give us the information), the other agent has basically said no-one will buy our house. Fortunately for us we are not in a desperate need to sell, merely wishing to sell to buy another property in Cyprus. Its the principal for us.

Bluebell wrote:The property is free of any impediments and the present agreement may be lodged with the Lands Registry Office.

The property could well have been free from impediments when your contract was deposited - but only a search will confirm. The memo seems to be the main problem preventing a sale and that could have been lodged any time after your contract.

Assuming your lawyer acted on your instructions promptly, the search should have been completed in a few days. Try giving him a gentle nudge.

The damn system here isn't what you would call 'buyer friendly' - there are so many problems with the system that anyone can get caught - it's hopeless.

I have sold property with memo. It all depends on the buyer and whether they will accept it. As long as there is no risk to repossession it should be ok, but what the memo means is that title deeds are not forth coming any time soon or if at all.

We always do a search whether we are selling the clients property or for the buyer, and it takes about a week to get it or sooner if you know the guys

Waiting for lawyers to do anything is a waste of time if you don't stay on them, your agent is obviusly not worth what you are paying him as he should be progressing all this for you.

Our property is in Peyia on a quite residential complex. Its been on the market for 4 months (at a considerably low price) and we have had a lot of interest and 2 offers, mainly from our own marketing. But with the mortgage and memo saga this does make it difficult when trying to explain the position without putting people off and feeling like we are deceiving buyers.
You might be right about the lawyers - thankfully we haven't paid anything yet! I keep chasing the lawyer every other day by phone and e-mail but will keep at it.
I think the system here is neither buyer or seller friendly!!